(_Monthly Story._)
One morning, on a rainy day in March, a lad dressed like a country boy,
all muddy and saturated with water, with a bundle of clothes under his
arm, presented himself to the porter of the great hospital at Naples,
and, presenting a letter, asked for his father. He had a fine oval face,
of a pale brown hue, thoughtful eyes, and two thick lips, always half
open, which displayed extremely white teeth. He came from a village in
the neighborhood of Naples. His father, who had left home a year
previously to seek work in France, had returned to Italy, and had landed
a few days before at Naples, where, having fallen suddenly ill, he had
hardly time to write a line to announce his arrival to his family, and
to say that he was going to the hospital. His wife, in despair at this
news, and unable to leave home because she had a sick child, and a baby
at the breast, had sent her eldest son to Naples, with a few soldi, to
help his father--his _daddy_, as they called him: the boy had walked ten
miles.
The porter, after glancing at the letter, called a nurse and told him to
conduct the lad to his father.
"What father?" inquired the nurse.
The boy, trembling with terror, lest he should hear bad news, gave the
name.
The nurse did not recall such a name.
"An old laborer, arrived from abroad?" he asked.
"Yes, a laborer," replied the lad, still more uneasy; "not so very old.
Yes, arrived from abroad."
"When did he enter the hospital?" asked the nurse.